Installation view of Mary Heilmann: Long Line (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 9, 2025-January 19, 2026). On wall: Long Line, 2025. On floor: Monochrome Chairs, 2015; April Chairs, 2025. Photograph by Trevor Felder
On view
Floor 5
Open: Apr 9, 2025–Jan 19, 2026
Mary Heilmann (b. 1940; San Francisco) once said that "museums are places to hang out," and this exhibition embodies that spirit, inviting social connection and engagement with the Whitney's architecture, the Hudson River, and the surrounding cityscape. The immersive environment includes a hand-painted enlargement of Heilmann's 2020 painting Long Line, as well as a variety of sculptural chairs related to furniture she has displayed in galleries and homes. The influence of 1960s counterculture and geometric Minimalism are reflected in Heilmann's decades-long approach to abstraction, one centered on exuberant color and unorthodox form. Long Line was influenced by the artist's experience watching waves off the coasts of Long Island and California—here it creates a visual rhyme with the Hudson River
This new site-specific installation, Mary Heilmann: Long Line, celebrates the tenth anniversary of the opening of this building, for which Heilmann created Mary Heilmann: Sunset (2015). That project, which included a large-scale reproduction of a vibrant painting, a film, and Heilmann's signature chairs, inaugurated the Museum's largest outdoor gallery and transformed it into a site of reverie and leisure as well as a place for reflection on an ever-changing city.
Mary Heilmann: Long Line is organized by Laura Phipps, Associate Curator.
Installation photography
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Installation view of Mary Heilmann: Long Line (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 9, 2025-January 19, 2026). On wall: Long Line, 2025. On floor: Monochrome Chairs, 2015; April Chairs, 2025. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of Mary Heilmann: Long Line (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 9, 2025-January 19, 2026). On wall: Long Line, 2025. On floor: Monochrome Chairs, 2015; April Chairs, 2025. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of Mary Heilmann: Long Line (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 9, 2025-January 19, 2026). April Chairs, 2025. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of Mary Heilmann: Long Line (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 9, 2025-January 19, 2026). On wall: Long Line, 2025. On floor: Monochrome Chairs, 2015; April Chairs, 2025. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of Mary Heilmann: Long Line (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 9, 2025-January 19, 2026). April Chairs, 2025. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of Mary Heilmann: Long Line (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 9, 2025-January 19, 2026). On wall: Long Line, 2025. On floor: Monochrome Chairs, 2015; April Chairs, 2025. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
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Installation view of Mary Heilmann: Long Line (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 9, 2025-January 19, 2026). April Chairs, 2025. Photograph by Ron Amstutz